APWorldHistoryWiki - Latin America (1020-1027)

Latin America (1020-1027)

Latin America Struggles with Neocolonialism

After gaining independence in the 19th century, most Latin American nations struggled to achieve economic and political stability.
Neocolonialism, a subtle form of imperial control, took over and established economic and political interference.

The Impact of the Great War and the Great Depression

Reorientation of Political and Nationalist Ideals

The various revolutions throughout the world spread ideas of new political possiblilties throughout Latin America.
Marxism & Vladamir Lenin's capitalist theories are examples of ideas that Latin American nations considered.
The Enlightenment style liberalism no longer served as the only form of political legitamacy.

University Protests and Communist Parties

After WWI, the United States became one of the world's economic leaders.
Latin America felt this first hand and many revolutions over capitalism broke out.
The first group to revolt was the universities.
The students wanted more representation within the education system.
Universities started to become training grounds for future political leaders (Fidel Castro).
Political parties that either supported communism or wanted rebellions for change arose.
José Carlos Mariátegui was a marxist intellectual who called for widespread help for the Indian population that made up 50% of Peru's population.
He was exiled to Europe but came back as a Marxist, and in 1928 established a socialist party of Peru.
Mariátegui died of cancer in 1930, but had laid the foundation for a Peruvian communist party.
The Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA) was a revolution targeted at Peru's ruling system to give rights to the lower social groups of Peru.
These people were refered to as Apristas and they offered radical but noncommunist alternatives to ruling.
Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre proposed a capitalist development that had pesants and workers cooperating with the middle class.

Diego Rivera and Radical Artistic Visions

Diego Rivera was a classicly trained artist who combined his artistic skills with his political views in murals that he believed should be on display for working people.
The government began employing him to create murals on public buildings.
He transcribed the History of Mexico onto buildings such as the National Palace and the Ministry of Education in Mexico City.
In 1933 he was commisioned to paint murals for the RCA building in New York City.
He included a portrait of Vladamir Lenin on one panel of the mural, which outraged those who had commisioned the work.
The mural was destroyed and Rivera undertook a series of 21 paintings entitled Portrait of America.
His most critical painting, Imperialism shows the economic dependency and political repressiveness endangered by U.S. neocolonialism in Latin America.

The Evolution of Economic Imperialiam

United States Economic Domination

Export oriented
Economies have been controlled by Great Britain and the U.S.
The major evolution in economic neocolonialism during this period concerned the growing predominance of the U.S. in the economic affairs of Latin America
Great War sealed transition to U.S. supremacy
1924-1920 U.S. banks and businesses more than doubled their financial interests in Latin American
Most of the money went towards businesses extracting vital minerals

Dollar Dipomacy

President William Howard Taft

Economic Depression and Experimentation

Great Depression demonstrated how much Latin America became a part of the worlds economy
Great Depression halted 50 years of economic growth in Latin America
Prices for sugar, coffee, wheat, beef, tin and nitrates sharply fell after 1929
Unemployment rates increased rapidly
Raised tariffs on foreign products
Getulio Dornelles Vargas (1883-1954)
Gave workers health and safety regulations, minimum wages, limits on working hours, unemployment compensation and retirement benefits.

Conflicts of the "Good Neighbor"

The "Good Neighbor Policy"

The Great Depression created to an instability in global politics, which prompted the United States to carefully modify the U.S. foreign policy in Latin America
U.S. attempted to take more peaceful and financial relations in Latin America
Ex.- Instead of deploying troops to seize control, U.S. would train military forces already in that country to control the people better.
This revamp became known as the "Good Neighbor Policy" closely associated with the administration of Franklin D. Roosevel

Nicaragua and the Guarda Nacional

U.S. greatly influenced Nicaragua's economy through the banana industry, which served to justify U.S. intervention in when revolts or civil wars broke out
Leading the opposition of U.S. troops in Nicaragua was Augusto Cesar Sandino, a nationalist and liberal general
As part of a plan to remove U.S. troops the U.S. created the Nicaragua National Guard, making Anastacio Somoza Garcia the commander, and brought Juan Batista Sacasa to presidency through supervised elections.
Officers of the National Guard murdered Sandino, Somoza kept the Guard loyal to him, and the president tried to better relations between America and Nicaragua

Cardenas Mexico

The "Good Neighbor Policy" led to the signing of the "Convention on the Rights and Duties of States" which said no state has the right to get into the others affairs
Mexican president, Lazaro Cardenas stressed this new policy when he nationalized (took government possession of) the oil industry, much of which was owned by Britain and U.S. investors
Strained many foreign relations but, because of fear of war, Roosevelt called for a calm, cool response.
Foreign oil companies had to settler for $24 million in compensation when the had demanded $260 million

Neighborly Cultural Exchanges

In the deterioration of foreign relations, the U.S. wanted to detour from the militarist behavior of the Asian and European imperial powers and cultivate Latin American markets (and to secure support if another war broke out)
In place of halted European migration to the U.S., Mexican migrants flowed into the U.S. which gave Americans a bad view of Latin America because migrants worked cheaper and took more jobs.
To lighten up this point of view, Hollywood brought in a famously popular brazilian entertainer, Carmen Miranda
She gave a warmer, gentler look to the seemingly threatening image of Latin Americans